When handling sheet paper products travelling at high speed, such as newspapers from a printing press, they are conventionally slowed down in a shingling mechanism comprising a rotary fan distributor with a plurality of circumferentially located buckets for receiving the papers sequentially and dropping them in shingled array onto a conveyor belt. However, the conventional prior art is not satisfactory when accurate and precise spacing between the shingled papers at all speeds is necessary, as is the case if addressing equipment or the like is to receive the so shingled papers for further processing. One significant prior art problem arises from the fact that the paper products must come to a fixed stripper stop, letting the fingers of the "bucket" or "fan" move on while the papers drop onto the conveyor belt. Such can make the spacing very erratic when changes of press speed occur.
Another significant problem of the prior art is the displacement of the papers when they encounter a fixed position stripper stop for stripping the papers out of the buckets. At higher speeds the papers bounce off the stop into erratic positions.
The prior art providing a fixed position stripping member for displacing a paper product out of the bucket is typified by U.S. Pat. No. 1,949,152 issued to H. Fankboner on Feb. 27, 1934. This particular system has the further problem of limited speed because the papers are completely stopped and then reversed in conveyance direction. Higher speed is obtained in systems such as in U.S. Pat. No. 2,398,044 issued to H. H. Rapley on Mar. 19, 1946, wherein the papers are conveyed in the same direction as the travel of the bucket about the periphery of the rotary fan wheel. However, in this apparatus the spacing of the paper products is done by a toothed belt that intercepts the papers after being discharged from the bucket and while travelling along the conveyance belt. Thus, there must be frictional slip between the belt and the paper product which is almost impossible to control accurately in the presence of products that vary in speed, weight and flexibility.
Accordingly, it is an object of this invention to provide an improved system that overcomes the deficiencies of the prior art for accurately spacing a sequence of paper sheet products on a conveyor, particularly in shingled array, at varying speeds.
Other objects, features and advantages of the invention will be found throughout the following description, drawings and claims.